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Remarkable Lives an Legacy of Sofia Kovalevskaya and Emmy Noether

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Remarkable Lives an Legacy of Sofia Kovalevskaya and Emmy Noether Remarkable lives an legacy of Sofia Kovalevskaya and Emmy Noether Leon A. Takhtajan Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA Euler Mathematical Institute, Saint Petersburg, Russia ICTS Public Lecture Bangalore, January 10, 2017 2 Amalie Emmy Noether In Erlangen and Göttingen Hilbert’s assistant Noether theorem Abstract algebra Tribute Plan 1 Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya Early years Higher mathematics Major work Plan 1 Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya Early years Higher mathematics Major work 2 Amalie Emmy Noether In Erlangen and Göttingen Hilbert’s assistant Noether theorem Abstract algebra Tribute Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya Sofia Kovalevskaya, 1850–1891 Sofia Kovalevskaya (née Korvin-Krukovskaya), was born in Moscow on 15 January 1850. Her father, lieutenant general Vasily Vasilyevich Korvin-Krukovsky, was a head of the Moscow artillery and her mother, Yelizaveta Fedorovna Schubert, was from a family of German scholars who had settled in Saint Petersburg during the time of Catherine the Great. Sofia’s maternal grandfather was general Theodor Friedrich von Schubert, a head of the Russian military topographic service. Theodor Friedrich von Schubert, 1789–1865 Sofia had a typical upbringing for a girl of her class and time. She was left largely in the care of nurses and governesses, spoke English and French almost as well as she did Russian, and was reared in the belief that her future would be settled by the marriage with a young man of suitable wealth and family position. • The wall of Sofia’s room in the family country estate in lieu of the wallpaper were papered with pages by the the lecture notes by Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus. • Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem Ñ Ó ( F)dV (F n)dS V r ¢ Æ S ¢ Sofia introduction to mathematics • Sofia’s father had a love of science and mathematics and in his student days attended lectures by M.V. Ostrogradsky Mikhail Vasilyevich Ostrogradsky, 1801–1862 • Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem Ñ Ó ( F)dV (F n)dS V r ¢ Æ S ¢ Sofia introduction to mathematics • Sofia’s father had a love of science and mathematics and in his student days attended lectures by M.V. Ostrogradsky Mikhail Vasilyevich Ostrogradsky, 1801–1862 • The wall of Sofia’s room in the family country estate in lieu of the wallpaper were papered with pages by the the lecture notes by Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus. Sofia introduction to mathematics • Sofia’s father had a love of science and mathematics and in his student days attended lectures by M.V. Ostrogradsky Mikhail Vasilyevich Ostrogradsky, 1801–1862 • The wall of Sofia’s room in the family country estate in lieu of the wallpaper were papered with pages by the the lecture notes by Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus. • Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem Ñ Ó ( F)dV (F n)dS V r ¢ Æ S ¢ Childhood memories “As I speak of these, my first contacts with mathematics, I cannot help mentioning a curious circumstance which also helped to arouse my interest in the field. When we moved permanently to the country, the whole house had to be redecorated and all the rooms had to be freshly wallpapered. But since there were many rooms, there wasn’t enough wallpaper for one of the nursery rooms... But by happy chance, the paper for this preparatory covering consisted of the lithographed lectures of Professor Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus, which my father had acquired as young man. These sheets, all speckled over with strange, unintelligible formulas, soon attracted my attention; I remember as a child standing for hours on end in front of this mysterious wall, trying to figure out at least some isolated sentences and to find the sequence in which the sheets should follow one another. From this protracted daily contemplation, the outer appearance of many of these formulas imprinted themselves in my memory; indeed, their very text left a deep trace in my brain, although they were incomprehensible to me while I was reading them.” • In 1860th higher equation for women in Russia was not available and one needed to study abroad. Only in 1878 Women’s Higher Education Institution (Bestuzhev Courses) were opened in Saint Petersburg with lectures by famous professors Borodin, Mendeleyev, Sechenov and Zelinski. • In order to study abroad, Sofia needed written permission from her father (or husband). Accordingly, she contracted a ‘fictitious marriage’ with Vladimir Kovalevsky in 1868. First mathematics lessons • “I took my first lesson in differential calculus from the eminent Petersburg Professor Aleksandr Nikolaevich Strannolyubsky. He was amazed at the speed with which I grasped and assimilated the concepts of limit and of derivatives, exactly as if you knew them in advance. I recall that he expressed himself in just those words. And, as a matter of fact, at the moment when he was explaining these concepts I suddenly had a vivid memory of all this, written on the memorable sheets of Ostrogradsky; and the concept of limit appeared to me as an old friend.” • In order to study abroad, Sofia needed written permission from her father (or husband). Accordingly, she contracted a ‘fictitious marriage’ with Vladimir Kovalevsky in 1868. First mathematics lessons • “I took my first lesson in differential calculus from the eminent Petersburg Professor Aleksandr Nikolaevich Strannolyubsky. He was amazed at the speed with which I grasped and assimilated the concepts of limit and of derivatives, exactly as if you knew them in advance. I recall that he expressed himself in just those words. And, as a matter of fact, at the moment when he was explaining these concepts I suddenly had a vivid memory of all this, written on the memorable sheets of Ostrogradsky; and the concept of limit appeared to me as an old friend.” • In 1860th higher equation for women in Russia was not available and one needed to study abroad. Only in 1878 Women’s Higher Education Institution (Bestuzhev Courses) were opened in Saint Petersburg with lectures by famous professors Borodin, Mendeleyev, Sechenov and Zelinski. First mathematics lessons • “I took my first lesson in differential calculus from the eminent Petersburg Professor Aleksandr Nikolaevich Strannolyubsky. He was amazed at the speed with which I grasped and assimilated the concepts of limit and of derivatives, exactly as if you knew them in advance. I recall that he expressed himself in just those words. And, as a matter of fact, at the moment when he was explaining these concepts I suddenly had a vivid memory of all this, written on the memorable sheets of Ostrogradsky; and the concept of limit appeared to me as an old friend.” • In 1860th higher equation for women in Russia was not available and one needed to study abroad. Only in 1878 Women’s Higher Education Institution (Bestuzhev Courses) were opened in Saint Petersburg with lectures by famous professors Borodin, Mendeleyev, Sechenov and Zelinski. • In order to study abroad, Sofia needed written permission from her father (or husband). Accordingly, she contracted a ‘fictitious marriage’ with Vladimir Kovalevsky in 1868. Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky, 1842–1883 • Vladimir Kovalevsky was a Russian revolutioner (belonged to the Russian nihilist movement’, a kind of utopian socialism), geologist, paleontologist, founder of evolution paleonthology. • Same year — went to London with her husband, met Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin and debated with Herbert Spencer “woman’s capacity for abstract thought”. Herbert Spencer, 1820–1903 • 1869-1871 — Kovalevskaya attended lectures by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. • 1871 — took private lessons with Karl Weierstrass in Berlin (the university did not allow to audit classes). Higher mathematics: Heidelberg and Berlin • 1869 — Kovalevskaya attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany (was allowed to audit classes with professors approval). • 1869-1871 — Kovalevskaya attended lectures by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. • 1871 — took private lessons with Karl Weierstrass in Berlin (the university did not allow to audit classes). Higher mathematics: Heidelberg and Berlin • 1869 — Kovalevskaya attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany (was allowed to audit classes with professors approval). • Same year — went to London with her husband, met Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin and debated with Herbert Spencer “woman’s capacity for abstract thought”. Herbert Spencer, 1820–1903 • 1871 — took private lessons with Karl Weierstrass in Berlin (the university did not allow to audit classes). Higher mathematics: Heidelberg and Berlin • 1869 — Kovalevskaya attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany (was allowed to audit classes with professors approval). • Same year — went to London with her husband, met Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin and debated with Herbert Spencer “woman’s capacity for abstract thought”. Herbert Spencer, 1820–1903 • 1869-1871 — Kovalevskaya attended lectures by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. Higher mathematics: Heidelberg and Berlin • 1869 — Kovalevskaya attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany (was allowed to audit classes with professors approval). • Same year — went to London with her husband, met Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin and debated with Herbert Spencer “woman’s capacity for abstract thought”. Herbert Spencer, 1820–1903 • 1869-1871 — Kovalevskaya attended lectures by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. • 1871 — took private lessons with Karl Weierstrass in Berlin (the university did not allow to audit classes). Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, von Helmholtz, 1821–1894 1824–1887 Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass, 1815–1897 • Called Sofia the most talented of his students (who included such eminent mathematicians as Georg Frobenius, Hermann Schwarz and Carl Runge) and watched out for her interests as carefully as he did for his own. • Paper on Laplace’s calculations on the shape of Saturn rings. • Paper on the reduction of abelian integrals to elliptic integrals. • Paper on local existence and uniqueness theorem for Cauchy initial value problem for partial differential equations with analytic coefficients — the celebrated Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem. • Unknown to Weierstrass and Kovalevskaya, Cauchy proved a special case of this theorem in 1842.
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